chariot racing – Page 2 – THE LEGEND OF THE GREAT HORSE trilogy

#54- The Emperor’s Stables

“Horses helped Meagan through the dark days. The familiar rhythms of their care was an anchor to the world she had always known.” – Eclipsed by Shadow (excerpt)

In the year 100 A.D.

The Emperor’s chariots belonged to the Green corporation, and it was impossible to forget. Green banners flapped against squat mortar buildings and green ribbons adorned iron-grilled gates. Guards and supervisors wore leek-colored tunics and the horses worked in green-dyed wrappings and pads.

Inside the Emperor’s compound, stern horsemanship was executed with clockwork precision. Daylight hours were filled with the rumbling of chariots and shouts of men. First feeding was sharply at dawn and repeated at regular intervals throughout the day. Fresh water was supplied continuously and the stalls cleaned in rotation.

Horses helped Meagan through the dark days. The familiar rhythms of their care was an anchor to the world she had always known. Stall cleaning was her duty: slaves of better rank carried out feeding and grooming. The horses’ mangers were stuffed with fragrant hay and grains, but every morning a stained cart was wheeled down the rows, from which meat and eggs were distributed to mix with the feed. Romans believed feeding sparrow’s eggs, ground feathers and birds’ blood logically made a horse run faster.

“No, they do not,” Meagan had protested in broken Latin. “Horses are … are…”

“Horses are what?” asked a sneering voice behind her. She turned to see the baleful gaze of the Master of Horse. A waft of pungent perfume seeped from his toga. “Please, tell us. Horses are … what?”

“I-I don’t know,” Meagan said, flustered. She wanted to say “vegetarian” but could not think of the Latin word.

The man blinked up at her and wrinkled his nose. “Better not to offer opinions in the Emperor’s stable, I think. Others might find out we use idiots here.”

Meagan observed the other workers’ downcast eyes and remained silent. Later, she would learn the Master of Horse was called Posthumous, a name commonly given to a son born after his father’s death. Others’ descriptions of his character added colorful phrases to her vocabulary.

Excerpted from Eclipsed by Shadow, the award-winning 1st volume of “The Legend of the Great Horse” trilogy. (Hrdbk pg. 128)

Book II: The Golden Spark will be published soon.

Read the 1st Chapter online!

Naufragia was the name Romans gave to crashes during a chariot race, the shocking pileups of man, machine and thrashing horses. Naufragia is the latin word for “shipwreck,” which conjures the shocking destruction and tangled ruin that so dismayed—and ultimately delighted—the screaming spectators of the Circus.

Naufragia was ultimate disaster, an end not only to hopes of victory but to lives, careers, destiny. A favorite champion could be undone in an instant—every moment of a chariot race was fraught with potential disaster. The extremes of emotion provoked by collisions and near disasters shocked spectators into wild states of euphoria and despair.

A crash was the ultimate calamity for a chariot, but with the growth of the spectator sport Rome twisted the calamity into attraction. The shock of destruction that punctuated the spectacle drove spectators into frenzy, and became a catharsis for the tensions surrounding the race. Spectators grew addicted to the emotional drama of the Circus, filling their increasingly empty lives with it’s loud distraction as their society declined.

Fate was capricious and all of life was subject to naufragia! Honor, duty, love, courage, all one’s hopes, all effort, all resources—naufragia!—gone in an instant.

Naufragia was the point of distraction. As the lives of ordinary citizens were drained of promise by their darkening Empire—they cheered for naufragia! Deprived of property and rights, they cheered—naufragia! And in the end, distracted, frenzied, caught in its own social dysfunction and spectating madness, Rome itself became the grand metaphor of its own distraction—naufragia!

History Repeats

zpage239 In our modern society we have celebrity athletes of different sports, but this is not simply a continuation of historical tradition. Rome was the society that first grew athlete-superstars was Rome. After their collapse, Europe endured a period of centuries known as the Dark or Middle Ages in which there were no celebrity athletes. It was not until the Industrial Age and the organization of modern sports that athletes began to again capture the popular imagination as celebrated stars.

Rome was the first Republic and the grandfather of Western culture. It was a society that flourished as a “melting pot” of peoples with citizen representation in government—and grew the world’s first Middle Class—before corrupting into a tyranny that ended in the destruction of human consciousness. There were two Romes: the long period of growth during the Republic, and its shorter stagnation and decline as an Imperial power.

Celebrity charioteers were a feature of Imperial Rome, and it is Imperial Rome that holds the common imagination today. There has been a reawakening in modern times of ancient forces, whether these forces are (or can be made) positive or not. The destructive element of Rome’s manic celebrity was the power of distraction. Chariot racing was the “circus” of Juvenal’s famous quote about “Bread and Circuses”:

…for the People who once upon a time handed out military command, high civil office, legions — everything, now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things: bread and circuses.

The Charioteers of Rome

Oh no! He’s taken the corner wide!
What are you doing? The next chariot is crowding you.
What are you doing, you idiot? You’re going to lose what my girl’s prayed for!
Pull, please, PULL left as hard as you can.
We are rooting for a bum.

–Ovid (43 BC – AD 17) Roman poet, Amores

This poem from circa year Zero is recognizable today. Rome was very modern, though more primal and untested, civilized thought existed then. We can feel the connection.

The idea that human nature does not change has been part of human culture since at least Aristotle’s claim that “All men by nature desire knowledge.” Repetition of historical events across cultures—revolution, poverty, despots, war—could be evidence of an unchanging basic human nature. Our ideas and knowledge have advanced, but there is a part of humanity that still shouts on the bleachers in Rome.

charioteerrelief Unpredictable new things have occurred in society, or at least have emerged in forms unrecognizable to that which has gone before. Such is the case of the charioteer in Ancient Rome.

Top talent on the racing circuit of antiquity attracted throngs of followers, including dignitaries and high officials, wealthy sponsors and fanatics (fans) of all levels of society. The adulation of a sports figures is familiar in our televised age, but in Rome’s day it was something new.

In earlier Greek sport, charioteers were honored along with other athletes (and poets) but Rome twisted the premise. Roman charioteers were professionals. Instead of glorifying the charioteer for achievement, Roman racing grew into a “win at all costs” spectacle that favored violent confrontation and cutthroat tactics. Ironically this escalation of conflict gave advantage to the lowest levels of society, who would take risks avoided by those of more privileged rank. (This gave no clue to the Roman elite.)

For their part, charioteers gradually developed an impunity to societal laws and accepted conduct. The profession became synonymous with thuggery, cheating, bribery and other “low” behavior, to the point Emperor Nero “forbade the revels of the charioteers, who had long assumed a license to stroll about, and established for themselves a kind of prescriptive right to cheat and thieve, making a jest of it.” [Suetonius, “The Lives of Twelve Caesars”]

Greek’s held the reins in their hands, but Roman charioteers tied them around their waists which (deliberately?) dramatically increased the danger and fatality of collisions as the pilot was subject to being dragged unless he cut his reins in time. Whether the spectacle of chariot-racing was a symptom or a cause, Roman societal attitudes became increasingly fatalistic and competitive, and finally merciless and capricious. And then … nothing.

The Greek view of awarding athletes “honor and glory” was replaced in Rome with the material rewards of fame and wealth. We don’t know the names of many Greek chariot-racing heroes; we know more about the celebrated Roman charioteers. However, while Greek racing flourished and developed into a new form, there was no second act for the Roman Circus.